page_title: Transportation in New York City
section_title: Transit culture
hierarchical_section_title: Transportation in New York City / Background / Transit culture
caption_attribution_description: Description: F Train, Manhattan-bound, 17 May 2005 9:25am. New York's subway ridership comprises much of the city's newspaper readership base. Location: New York
context_page_description: The transportation system of New York City is a network of complex infrastructural systems. New York City, being the most populous city in the United States, has a transportation system which includes one of the largest subway systems in the world; the world's first mechanically ventilated vehicular tunnel; and an aerial tramway. New York City is also home to an extensive bus system in each of the five boroughs; citywide and Staten Island ferry systems; and numerous yellow taxis and boro taxis throughout the city. Private cars are less used compared to other cities in the rest of the United States.
  Within the New York City metropolitan area, the airport system—which includes John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport, Stewart Airport and a few smaller facilities—is one of the largest in the world. The Port of New York and New Jersey, which includes the waterways around New York City and its metropolitan area, is one of the busiest seaports in the United States. There are also three commuter rail systems, the PATH rapid transit system to New Jersey, and various ferries between Manhattan and New Jersey.
context_section_description: Over 5 million people ride the transit network each weekday, and the system is a major venue for commerce, entertainment, and political activism. Much of the city, excluding Staten Island, relies on the subway, which is open 24 hours a day, as its main source of transportation. Campaigning at subway stations is a staple of New York elections akin to candidate appearances at small town diners during presidential campaigns in the rest of the country. Each week, more than 100 musicians and ensembles – ranging in genre from classical to Cajun, bluegrass, African, South American, and jazz – give over 150 performances sanctioned by New York City Transit at 25 locations throughout the subway system, many under the Music Under New York program. There are many more who are unauthorized performers called buskers, who range from professionals putting on an impromptu show to panhandlers seeking donations by way of performance.
  One outcome of the city's extensive mass transit use is a robust local newspaper industry. The readership of many New York dailies consists in large part by transit riders who read during their commutes. The three-day transit strike in December 2005 briefly depressed circulation figures, underscoring the relationship between the city's commuting culture and newspaper readership.
  The subways of New York have been venues for beauty pageants and guerrilla theater. The MTA's annual Miss Subways contest ran from 1941 to 1976 and again in 2004 (under the revised name "Ms. Subways").
  The subways and commuter rail systems also have some artworks in their stations, commissioned under the MTA Arts & Design umbrella.
caption: Riders on the New York City Subway, 2005
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2007:07:16 19:16:55", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7421", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "794", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "525"}